「細菌電池」藏在紡織物上，吸收你的汗水發電
紐約賓漢頓大學團隊最近又開發出新的生物電池，這一次是基於可以任意拉伸的紡織品上，而電力驅動來自細菌在分子之間交換電子的行為，你的唾液、汗水都是細菌發電的營養來源。一年前，這個由賓漢頓大學電子與資訊工程學助理教授 Seokheun Choi 領導的團隊已推出過一種紙質生物電池，可多次摺疊而不影響發電，且電池功率還會隨摺疊程度不同而改變。
近，團隊改良之後發表了更新的「紡織生物電池」，在重複拉伸、扭轉測試中也擁有穩定的發電能力。生物燃料電池（biological fuel cell）是一種基於生物電化學的電池系統，使用自然界細菌及織物上的仿真細菌交互作用來產生電流啟動化學反應。簡單說，就是利用細菌來觸發還原／氧化反應，從而在分子之間交換電子來發電。
在之前，Seokheun Choi 已經用髒水、唾液來測試細菌的發電能力，只是生物電池在穿戴式電子產品上的應用非常不發達，因為細菌可能會引起健康問題。
但 Seokheun Choi 認為，人體內的細菌數量比細胞還多，如果不作為資源利用實在太浪費了，因此他的最新打算瞄準了人體的自然分泌物：汗水，將其中一種稱為「綠膿桿菌（Pseudomonas aeruginosa）」的細菌作為生物催化劑，由此產生的裝置最大功率輸出達 6.4μW／cm2，電流密度為 52μA／cm2，與其他柔性紙質微生物燃料電池相似。
《New Atlas》報導，所有的電池部件都被整合到單片織物中，陽極和陰極之間沒有隔離膜。陽極室被設計成親水性以導電，可從汗水中的細菌獲取電力，陰極則使用氧化銀和氧化還原反應做為紡織電子產品的固態材料。
與傳統電池或其他酶燃料電池相比，微生物燃料電池可以成為可穿戴電子產品的最佳電源，因為不斷分泌的汗水是支持細菌活力的潛在燃料，提供穩定的酶促反應、讓微生物燃料電池可以長期運作，也就是說，未來你的衣服或襪子可在吸取你的汗水同時為穿戴式儀器供電，隨時監測相關鍛鍊成果。
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Stretchable fabric battery could power wearables with sweat ELECTRONICS
The bacteria-powered batteries of electrical engineer Seokheun Choi have taken on a number of interesting forms, including matchbooks, folding paper and ninja stars. For the first time, the Binghamton University researcher has now woven his innovative fuel cells into a flexible and stretchable piece of fabric that could one day power wearable electronics through our body's own bacteria.Choi's bacteria-powered batteries rely on what are known as microbial fuel cells (MFCs). These types of cells use bacteria to trigger reduction/oxidation reactions, which swap electrons between molecules to generate electricity. In his previous work, he has tapped dirty water and saliva for this purpose, and for his latest trick is turning to the bacterial cells found in human sweat.
"Among many flexible and integrative textile-based batteries and energy storage devices, MFCs are arguably the most underdeveloped for wearable electronic applications because microbial cytotoxicity may pose health concerns," Choi tells New Atlas. "In the literature, reported work on the wearable MFCs was either unavailable or quite limited. However, if we consider that humans possess more bacterial cells than human cells in their bodies (3.8×1013 compared to 3.0×1013), the direct use of bacterial cells as a power resource interdependently with the human body is conceivable for wearable electronics."
Choi investigated the possibilities by building his MFCs into a twistable, stretchable textile-based battery that uses the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa as a catalyst. The resulting device has a maximum power output of 6.4 µW cm−2, which is similar to his other flexible, paper-based MFCs. It also demonstrates stable, lasting performance even when bent out of shape repeatedly. We asked him to expand on the design.
"All my previous experiences and technologies on paper-based bio-batteries have been leveraged to develop for the first time an entirely textile-based bio-battery," Choi tells us. "All battery components were monolithically incorporated into a single sheet of fabric by precisely controlling the depth of each component. The structure consisted of the anode and cathode placed in a single reaction chamber with no separating membrane. The anodic chamber was specifically engineered to be conductive and hydrophilic for electricity harvesting from bacterial cells in liquid, while the cathode used the silver oxide and silver redox couple as a solid-state material for textile-based electronics."
One advantage of the single-chamber membrane-free approach, which is a departure from typical battery design, is that it makes production of the actual battery itself a lot simpler. Using a batch fabrication approach, Choi and his team were able to simultaneously construct 35 separate devices, and the researchers say this kind of approach could revolutionize the mass production of textile MFCs.
The research was published in the journal Advanced Energy Materials.
Original Article: NEW ATLAS
Source: Binghamton University
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